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Musk Rehires Racist-Tweet Staffer After Trump and Vance Back His Comeback · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast.
• 0:05
  This is a show where we discuss the critical crossroads that
• 0:08
  shape SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company and Neurolink.
• 0:13
  I'm your host Will Walden. Will 1 of DOGE employees, Marco
• 0:19
  Alez really get his job back after resigning over doing
• 0:23
  racist tweets? But also, why did Vice President
• 0:27
  JD Vance and President Donald Trump push for his rehiring
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  after those tweets were shown? And what does this say about how
• 0:36
  the administration views past online behavior now?
• 0:40
  Elon Musk announced Friday that Marco is a former staffer at the
• 0:43
  Department of Government Efficiency will be rehired after
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  resigning from a Treasury Department post due to the
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  exposure of tweets promoting racism and eugenics.
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  Musk made the decision following a public endorsement from Vice
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  President JD Vance and support from President Donald Trump.
• 1:02
  Noel has stepped down on Thursday after the Wall Street
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  Journal questioned the White House about his connection to an
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  ex account that had posted inflammatory remarks.
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  And within hours, Elon Musk conducted a poll on X asking
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  whether Eles should be reinstated to doge.
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  By Friday morning, the poll had gathered more than 385,000
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  votes, with 78% of his return in the favor.
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  So Vance was among those who publicly backed Eles responding
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  to Musk's poll by arguing that past social media activity
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  should not permanently ruin someone's career.
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  He said. Here's my view.
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  I obviously disagree with some of Les posts, but I don't think
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  stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life.
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  We shouldn't reward journalists who destroy people ever.
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  Now Trump, when asked about the situation during a press
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  conference with Japanese Prime Minister, did not comment
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  directly on the past remarks but aligned himself with his vice
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  president. He said, well, I don't know
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  about that particular thing, but if the vice president said that,
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  did you say that I'm with the vice president?
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  Noeles, 25, had been working as part of DOGE, which is a team
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  assembled by Donald Trump to reduce federal spending and cut
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  the government workforce. And before his resignation, he
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  had recently been approved by a federal judge to access the US
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  Treasury's payment system. The same judge placed
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  restrictions, and Howeles and other DOGE staffers could share
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  data from that system. Now, criticism of the past
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  statements from Ales intensified after the Wall Street Journal
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  reported on multiple tweets from an account linked to him.
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  One post from September read You could not pay me to marry
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  outside of my ethnicity. Another from the same month
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  stated Normalize Indian hate in response to a discussion about
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  the prominence of Indian professionals in Silicon Valley
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  now. The revelations prompted a
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  heated exchange between Vance and Representative Rokhana,
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  Democrat from California, who questioned whether Les should
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  apologize before being rehired. Saying are you going to tell him
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  to apologize for saying normalize Indian hate before
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  this rehire? Khana, who's Indian American,
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  asked Vance on X. Just asking for the sake of both
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  of our kids now. Vance, whose wife is Indian
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  American, dismissed Khanna's concerns.
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  He said grow up. Racist trolls on the Internet,
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  while offensive, don't threaten my kids.
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  You know what does? A culture that denies grace to
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  people who make mistakes. A culture that encourages
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  congressman to act like whiny children.
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  And in a follow up post, Vance added, You disgust me.
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  Now, the controversy surrounding Les comes amid a broader push by
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  the Trump administration to reshape key government agencies.
• 4:01
  Since taking office, Trump has removed Democratic commissioners
• 4:05
  from the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal
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  Employment Opportunity Commission.
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  He has also replaced officials at the Department of Justice and
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  the FBI. Now we're going to tie all this
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  together in a little bit, but we're going to stop to take a
• 4:21
  break from one of our sponsors. But before we do that, even I
• 4:24
  want to tell you about a weird statistic that I've noticed in
• 4:28
  the back end here on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts.
• 4:32
  That of all the people that listen to the show and there's
• 4:36
  10s of thousands of you every month, 100,000 of you every
• 4:39
  month. The fact that only about 50% of
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  you are actually subscribed, that's kind of weird to me
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  because people listen to the show and they keep listening,
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  but they never subscribe. I noticed in the statistics that
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  that's the way it works and all you have to do is hit the
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  subscribe button real quick. And my promise to you is that I
• 5:01
  will continue making episodes for you.
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  I'll do my best to pump out as many good episodes as possible.
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  Now, I will continue to make these episodes and if you hit
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  the subscribe button, you have my word that I'll continue to
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  make them better. So let's hear from the sponsor
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  and then we'll get back into the episode.
• 5:25
  Alez, who previously worked for X and SpaceX, has been part of a
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  group of young consultants brought into DOGE.
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  Energy Secretary Chris Wright, addressing concerns about DOGE
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  staffers being given sensitive government access, defended
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  their role, saying the government is old and maybe a
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  little bit stodgy. That's what they said in an
• 5:44
  interview Friday with NBC or CNBC.
• 5:47
  We've got some young kids. Think young gun management
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  consultants coming in to take a critical look at how things are
• 5:53
  run. And reports of service that a
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  DOGE staffer was granted access to the Energy Department's IT
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  system, fueling concerns over security protocols.
• 6:01
  However, Wright dismissed such worries.
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  They said I've heard these rumors.
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  They're like seeing our nuclear secrets.
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  None of that is true at all. They don't have security
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  clearances now. Treasury Secretary Scott Besen
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  also commented on the role of DOGE staffers in his department.
• 6:19
  Speaking with Bloomberg on Thursday, Besant confirmed that
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  he had personally vetted one of the two Treasury employees from
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  Musk's DOGE team, though he did not specify for Les was among
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  them, he said. These are highly trained
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  professionals. This is not some roving band
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  running around doing things. In the situation surrounding
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  Eliza's resignation and reinstatement is added to the
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  ongoing debate over accountability for past online
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  behavior. Social media posts included
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  statements beyond those targeting specific ethnic
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  groups. One post from last summer read,
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  Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool.
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  Another, which was a few weeks earlier, stated I would not mind
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  at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the
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  earth now. Musk's decision to reinstate
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  Allez marks another instance of the billionaire using X polls to
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  influence personal decisions. And Musk has previously polled
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  users on whether to reinstate banned accounts NX, including
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  that of Trump, after a suspension in the aftermath of
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  the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
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  And by the time Musk declared Allez would be rehired, the
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  debate had already escalated into a broader discussion about
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  political loyalty, media scrutiny, and forgiveness.
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  Now, whether the reinstatement will be the end of this
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  controversy remains to be seen. There's a lot of work going on
• 7:39
  with Elon Musk and Doge in all departments of the government.
• 7:44
  We'll see how much money they can strip out, see how much
• 7:47
  money they can save America, and also if they can save it by
• 7:52
  doing it legally. There are going to be some
• 7:55
  lawsuits in the near future. And we will bring you all of
• 7:59
  that information if you subscribe.
• 8:02
  So thanks again for subscribing. Hey, thank you so much for
• 8:11
  listening today. I really do appreciate your
• 8:13
  support. If you could take a second and
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  hit this subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast
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  appreciate it. It helps out the show
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• 8:37
  And please take care of yourselves and each other.
• 8:39
  And I'll see you tomorrow.